Cupertino is widely recognized for its K-12 public schools and community college. In recent years, our schools have shown significant environmental leadership in our community by installing renewable energy technologies, achieving aggressive green building standards and teaching lessons of climate and natural resource stewardship. Students, parents, educators and school administrators can play a key role in reducing greenhouse gas emissions and build a sustainable Cupertino through the following activities:

Commit to climate change-causing emissions reductions by tracking your energy use over time

Implement a facility-wide retrofitting program to install energy efficient light bulbs and appliances, low-flow faucets and showerheads and motion sensors. There are many grants, rebates, financing programs and technical assistance offered by PG&E and the CA Energy Commission to get you started

Conduct an annual audit to monitor levels of waste, energy, water consumed and associated costs and savings

Collect feedback from students, parents, teachers and administrators on action plan activities to identify opportunities to expand or refocus the program

Modify the action plan as required to achieve climate change/ environmental goals established in the process

Encourage students to develop their own personal sustainability plan to reduce climate change impacts in their own homes as part of other organizations (i.e. Girl/Boy Scouts, within their congregations, sports teams)

Learning Through Green Classrooms

Promote environmental awareness through art. Teachers can engage students in an art activity that safely reuses existing materials or is based on an environmental theme. Visit Cupertino’s Eco-Art Gallery based on the theme “What does sustainability (or sustain-ability) in Cupertino mean to you?” for inspiration!